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Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Reuse and Upcycling

Today, to continue the conversation about frugal living, I would like to talk about the most common entry in my blog, reusing or upcycling. A lot of you might not even realize that I do a lot of this already without even considering it. Heck a lot of you might even be doing this without considering it a form of frugal living. Here are a few examples in which I have reused or Upcycled:

When remodeling:

Reused framing in room by sanding and recoating it.

Reused heater covers, by washing and painting.

When Gardening:

Reused old cement pots

Reused old pots for potting purposes or to help replant

Reuse can be defined by Wikipeadia as: “To reuse is to use an item again after is been used. This includes conventional reuse where the item is used again for the same function and new-life reuse where it is used for a different function.”

Upcycling can be defined by Wikipeadia as “Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or for better environmental value.” And yes everyone, I want to point out that UPCYCLING is one word. I have a hard time battling Microsoft word with this J

Why I consider reusing or upcycling frugal:

The main goal of frugal living in my opinion is to use what you got and make the most out of what you have aka: Saving money!

Upcycling and reusing allows you to save money here are two examples on how they can save you money. Using your old soap dispenser by refilling it with bulk soap is more cost friendly then buying every time you run out. Decorating your home with items you can find inside or outside while reusing items through your home enables you to save money. So, take a chance at saving money.

Upcycling or reusing does not take a lot of time.

Unlike most crafts, in order to upcycle for everyday items, you will not be required to us a lot of time. In order to upcycle a beer bottle into a vase it should only take you about ten minutes. To upcycle a soap dispenser into a Lego soap dispenser it should only take about ten minutes also. You could reuse everything in your home in less than a day (according to my calculations J ).

Where to get ideas:

I find that Pintrest is a wonderful place; I also take a gander on Etsy from time to time.Once I have an idea if Pintrest isn’t able to successfully explain how to create I then will resort to the internet. So get Pinning!

I hope that this little post encourages you to relook at items you might be throwing away and helps you realize that money can be saved by just reusing or up cycling an already used or owned product.